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Turok-Han
The Turok-Han vampires (nicknamed the "ubervamps") are fictional characters from Joss Whedon's TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. First mentioned in the Buffy spin-off ''Angel'' season 3 episode "Offspring", they finally appear in the 7th and final season of the original series, making their first on screen appearance in the episode "Never Leave Me", when the Seal of Danzalthar is opened under the basement of Sunnydale High, over the Hellmouth. They are a race of ancient powerful vampires stronger and fiercer than the regular vampires from the series, stated to be to vampires what Neanderthals are to humans. Sunlight and beheading do kill them, but they are immune to crosses, and holy water only causes minor burns that do not deter them in the slightest. They are also resistant although not invulnerable to being staked through the heart (they have denser sternums), and can enter human residences undeterred. Though they are incapable of language and limited to animal instinct, the Turok-Han are intelligent enough to forge their own weapons. Turok-Han are raised by blood offerings/rituals performed on the seal of the Hellmouth. An interesting note is that the Turok-Han are similar in appearance to the ancient vampire leader, The Master, whose immense age resulted in his human appearance being lost forever; possibly reverting to the vampire's primal state. History Background They were a race of ancient powerful vampires, possibly created by the Old One Maloker, stronger and fiercer than the regular vampires, described as the vampire equivalent to Neanderthal man. Judging by Rupert Giles' description of them, they were monsters even amongst vampires. Sunnydale The First Evil, via its Bringers, initially used the combined blood of Jonathan Levinson and Spike to open the Seal of Danzalthar, thus releasing the first Turok-Han. Buffy Summers's first encounter with the primordial vampire nearly killed her as she was caught off-guard, tired from two days lack of sleep and worried about the fate of her friends. Their second encounter happened after the Turok-Han killed one of the first Potential Slayers sent to Sunnydale for protection. Buffy spent most of this time avoiding the vampire rather than fighting it but it nevertheless beat her to a bloody pulp. In between its fights with Buffy, it spent most of its time brutally torturing a captive Spike. After Buffy discovered the First's infiltration of the Potential Slayers, he told them that he would have the Turok-Han go after them. The Turok-Han broke into the Summers residence and fought through a barrier created by Willow Rosenberg. Buffy, her friends and Potential Slayers then fled to the streets. As the Turok-Han caught up with them, Buffy tried to hold it off though, the Turok-Han directed its attention to the Potentials after a brief struggle. Following them to the construction site, the Turok-Han was pursued by Buffy who, after a long battle, managed to the kill the vampire in front of the Potential Slayers."Showtime" Several weeks after, a demon attempted to release a Turok-Han using Xander Harris' blood. She was only successful in opening the seal long enough for a Turok-Han to stick its arm out before the ritual was disrupted. The Shadow Men later showed Buffy a vision of thousands of Turok-Han living below the seal. The First Evil apparently planned to open the Hellmouth and release them all, allowing them to conquer the world. The First would have taken physical form when its "forces" (presumably referring to the Turok-Han) outnumbered humanity in this world. Eventually, a few more Turok-Han were released."End of Days" Still more waited under Sunnydale for the time when the First would be able to free them all. Extinction Buffy and the other Slayers went into the Hellmouth itself to fight the Turok-Han."Chosen" In the end, all of them were apparently killed, including thousands by the mystical amulet that entrapped Spike. Spike remarked that, along with "decent punk bands" and his relationship with Drusilla, the Turok-Han were part of a list of "things that just don't exist anymore."Alone Together Now Physiology and powers The Turok-Han resembled pale, bald humanoid beings with the pronounced brow ridges shared by their human hybrid cousins. Their eyes were clear save for a black slits, similar to cats or reptiles. They had flat, bat-like noses, sharpened teeth, pointed elf-like ears, and long nails. Each Turok-Han was clad in black, leathery outfits. Just like modern vampires, the Turok-Han's bodies and clothes turn to dust upon death. Abilities The Turok-Han possessed the conventional powers of vampires, though to a considerably higher level. The first Turok-Han released was able to easily overpower Buffy and nearly kill her, forcing her to use every possible resource to defeat it the second time around. However, it should be noted that Buffy had been caught unprepared, and was also weakened and exhausted from two days' lack of sleep. The Turok-Han was able to push an entire wheelbarrow filled with timbers and tools out of its way by a mere shove of its hand and punch a cinder block into dust to no ill effect. They were also incredibly resilient; the first one immediately recovered after having a whole mess of steel beams dropped on it, and continued to fight after Buffy impaled it through the eye with a crossbow bolt. Like regular vampires, Turok-Hans possessed great speed that mimicked teleportation. In Buffy's first encounter with a Turok-Han, it suddenly appeared right next to her even though it was nowhere to be seen seconds before. When in Buffy's house, Willow created a force field to hold it off, though the Turok-Han broke it down in a matter of seconds. However, Dawn Summers later implied that Willow intentionally let the force field fail. The Turok-Han could also leap long distances without aid, doing the same distance as the one Buffy pole vaulted to. Also, according to Anya Jenkins, a Turok-Han's claws could shred flesh. Despite being near-mindless animals, the Turok-Han possessed enough intelligence to follow orders from the First and even to forge their own weapons. Vulnerabilities Despite their great power, even the Turok-Han possessed some of the common weaknesses of vampires. Though they were unaffected by crosses and were able to enter human residences without an invitation, the Turok-Han were still vulnerable to sunlight and decapitation. Additionally, due to their denser sternums, it was more difficult to stake them, though not impossible (Anya described it like trying to pierce steel with wood). Holy water appeared to be less effective against the Turok-Han than regular vampires, Anya herself claimed from her information that holy water "seems to run off these guys Turok-Han like they've been scotch-guarded". It was shown to cause only minor burns which deterred it for only a few seconds. Additionally, although their strength is without a doubt superior to most vampires and even Slayers, towards the confrontation with the First Evil, even regular humans like Dawn and Xander, given proper training, could match and defeat Turok-Han vampires in combat (or at least ward them off momentarily). Gallery Behind the Scenes *They were given the nickname of Übervamp by the Scooby Gang, more specifically Anya. 'Über' was first commonly used by German philosopher Nietzsche who coined the phrase 'Übermensch' – which referred to the higher state that man may aspire to, and has come to be used synonymously with "superman". An Übervamp is therefore a "supervampire". *The Turok-Han army's performance in the final battle of the series is noticeably worse than the performance of the first Turok-Han. While the first Turok-Han was able to nearly kill Buffy, forcing her to use every possible resource to defeat it the second time around, the later Turok-Han seem evenly matched against the newly activated Slayers and even normal humans such as Xander and Dawn. In the audio commentary for the episode, creator Joss Whedon explains he is aware of the continuity issue with the Turok-Han's powers. He acknowledges that early in the season the demon was nearly unstoppable, yet in the final episode the Slayers can defeat the Turok-Han much more easily. Whedon explains that the story behind the season/episode he wanted to get across to viewers was more important than the continuity. *In the original shooting script for "Get It Done", the vision shown to Buffy by the Shadow Men was originally supposed to be a ravaged, post-apocalyptic Sunnydale overrun with Turok-Han. ."Get It Done" shooting script *The term übervamp was first used by Charles Gunn in a season 3 episode of Angel describing what Darla and Angel's child (Connor) might be, but was not a reference to the Turok-Han; Gunn was unaware of their existence. *Dark Horse Comics interestingly enough obtained the rights of the comic book Buffyverse and the prehistoric hero known as Turok (previously owned by Acclaim/Valient) around the same time. Turok-Han was not connected to Turok though and is only a Buffyverse canon term for the prehistoric Vampire breed, that coincidentally lined up with the Dark Horse acquisition of Turok. *As the Turok-Han vampires were mentioned to be an extremely old and more powerful class of vampire, it may be possible that they were among the first, if not the very first, vampires that Maloker created. Appearances *"Same Time, Same Place" *"Never Leave Me" *"Bring on the Night" *"Showtime" *"Potential" *"Get it Done" *"First Date" *"Empty Places" *"End of Days" *"Chosen" *"Just Rewards" (Footage from "Chosen") *"The Girl in Question" *''The Chain (cameo) *Alone Together Now'' References Category:Buffyverse races Category:Buffyverse vampires Category:Fictional vampire types Category:Fictional warrior races Category:Fictional henchmen Category:Fictional prehistoric characters Category:Fictional endangered and extinct species Category:Fictional elements introduced in 2002